Overview
- In an essay published Tuesday, May 19, in Rolling Stone, Barack Obama recounted his personal debate rituals and detailed how music shaped his public life.
- He said he shifted from jazz to rap before debates, naming Jay‑Z’s “My 1st Song” and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” as regular choices that helped him focus.
- Obama argues that U.S. music—from spirituals and suffrage tunes to protest songs and early hip‑hop—has repeatedly reflected and sometimes led social and political change.
- He wrote that the Obama Presidential Center, which opens in June on Chicago’s South Side, will include a recording studio and a performance space meant to nurture the next generation of musical voices.
- The essay links music’s plural, hybrid roots to civic identity and suggests the Center’s cultural programming could help preserve memory, elevate new artists from the community, and shape how future generations hear American history.